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People use jargon to signal group membership-they also use it to compensate for low status. Nine studies found that being put in a position of low status increases jargon use. An analyses of 64,000 dissertations found that authors from low-status schools use more jargon: gwern.net/doc/psycholo...

An analysis of 2 billion Reddit comments finds that online dialogue becomes more negative over time Negativity increases because users try to stand out from others, and it is easier to differentiate oneself through negative comments (rather than through agreement) www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

LLMs can accurately predict the results of social science experiments Across 70 preregistered studies, there was a very strong correlation (r=.85) between LLM-predicted results and observed effects in actual experiments. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

State media control influences large language models LLMs exhibit a stronger pro-government valence in the languages of countries with lower media freedom than in those with higher media freedom. States have strategic incentives to shape LLM output. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Cooperation is one of humanity’s superpowers Our research finds that people don’t simply refuse to cooperate with AI. Instead, the social norms that ordinarily guide cooperation lose their power We explains why social norms fail in human-AI interaction www.powerofusnewsletter.com/p/why-social...

I was on @npr.org this week to talk about the science of social identity, intergroup conflict, and social norms. I did an interview on Hidden Brain about my book: www.hiddenbrain.org/podcast/grou... They invited me to return to answer listeners’ Qs (54 mins in): www.hiddenbrain.org/podcast/you-...

Group Think - Hidden Brain MediaHow do the groups you identify with shape your sense of self? Do they influence the beer you buy? The way you vote? In this favorite episode from 2021, psychologist Jay Van Bavel explains how our grou...www.hiddenbrain.org

Partisans have inaccurate perceptions of their political opponents. But a 10 min conversation with a "outgroup" chatbot can correct these erroneous beliefs & reduce partisan hostility Synthetic contact with outgroups can improve our perceptions and reduce intergroup bias arxiv.org/pdf/2607.02181

I did an interview with the @nytimes about a new viral trend: Travel accounts of risky global journeys These feel more accessible to people than the “Kardashian knockoff influencers” famous on Instagram in the 2010s which helps people develop a deeper connection. www.nytimes.com/2026/07/24/t...

Is Instagram’s Latest Travel Trend a Disaster Waiting to Happen? (Gift Article)Travel accounts that feature risky, cross-continental journeys are proliferating on social media. Security experts have serious concerns.www.nytimes.com

Scientists identify five key factors linked to happiness across 66 countries (and 97,220 citizens) They find that a communitarian approach, where societies foster environments that care for others, is highly effective at boosting a nation’s overall happiness. www.psypost.org/scientists-i...,

Scientists identify five key factors linked to happiness across 66 countriesWhat makes a society truly happy? New research in The Journal of Positive Psychology suggests that supportive, inclusive environments boost national well-being significantly more than individualistic ...www.psypost.org

Failure to act on bullying and persistent negativity is a leading reason why employees leave an organization—more significant than salaries or wages. A study from MIT Sloan found “toxic corporate culture” to be 10.4 times more important than compensation in an employee’s decision to resign.

I'll be speaking about our research on "How AI can both entrench and overcome our biases" at the Academic of Management Annual Meeting on August 4th in Philly. If you are at AOM and want to meet in person email me.

People are moral hypocrites The tendency for people to consider themselves morally good while behaving selfishly is known as moral hypocrisy We found that people engaging in moral hypocrisy with regard to their own behavior as well as the groups the belong to journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

Denying gender discrimination is linked to higher well-being among women because denying gender discrimination promotes the view that the system is fair The "denial of discrimination is an individual-level coping mechanism" that perpetuates gender inequality onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

DARVO refers to a reaction perpetrators, particularly sex offenders, display in response to being held accountable for their behavior The perpetrator Denies the behavior, Attacks the individual doing the confronting & Reverse the roles of Victim/Offender such that the perpetrator becames the victim

The #MeToo movement has achieved crucial legal reforms Chief among these are laws restricting nondisclosure agreements & forced arbitration, which abusers used to silence victims and allow bad behavior to continue. Workers can now speak up against their abusers. www.nytimes.com/2026/07/17/o...

Opinion | When I Sued Roger Ailes, #MeToo Was Just Starting. Now It’s the Law of the Land.www.nytimes.com

I'll be giving a talk on ""Why Outrage Goes Viral: Influence, Identity, Polarization" at a bar in Brooklyn on August 6th. This is part of the Lectures on Tap speaker series where professors, experts and storytellers give talks in NYC bars. Get a ticker here: www.eventbrite.com/e/lectures-o...

Can reading non-fiction books reduce partisan hostility? We tested 25 books using simulations and the winners are: “Lovingkindness: The Revolutionary Art of Happiness” + “Facing the Fracture: How to Navigate the Challenges of Living in a Divided Nation”. www.powerofusnewsletter.com/p/can-ai-hel...

Can AI Help Us Find the Books That Bridge Political Divides?We used language models to screen 26 nonfiction books. They agreed on the broad winners, disagreed on the details, and helped us choose two finalists for a human trial.www.powerofusnewsletter.com

Women who experiences sexual harassment exhibit reductions in well-being and system justification. psycnet.apa.org/record/2025-... Critically, these changes were significantly different than matched controls who did not show the same pre-post changes in well-being or system justification.

People who want to maintain existing hierarchies treat male perpetrators of sexual harassment with greater leniency, especially when they have high status. Those high on gender system justification + social dominance recommended lenient punishments to perpetrators. journals.plos.org/plosone/arti...

Support for authoritarian leaders can spread socially among citizens in democracies. Exposing people to peers with varying political views tended to adjust their own preference for strongman rule to match the attitudes of those around them. www.psypost.org/anti-democra...

Anti-democratic attitudes are highly contagious, new psychology study findsThe rise of anti-democratic sentiments might be driven by social contagion. Researchers have discovered that citizens often adapt their personal support for authoritarian rule to align with the politi...www.psypost.org